Distributed computer system for coordinating messaging and funding for healthcare expenses including funding via networked crowdsourcing

ABSTRACT

A distributed computer system comprises one or more patient system, configured to be operated by patients seeking provider services, a front-end web server to interface to the one or more patient system, a back-end server system coupled to the front-end web server to receive patient information, a healthcare provider system that provides information about a procedure needed by a patient unable to pay for the procedure, providing the information to the back-end server system, and a donor computer system, for accepting and receiving messages from the back-end server system about funding patient procedures.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application of U.S. Utility applicationSer. No. 16/166,002, filed on Oct. 19, 2018, which is acontinuation-in-part claiming the benefit of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/233,786, filed Aug. 10, 2016, which is a utility applicationclaiming the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/205,499, filed Aug. 14, 2015. The entire disclosures of the aboveapplications are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Healthcare costs can limit the availability of hospital procedures forsome patients in need of those procedures. Patients who are withouthealthcare coverage, who are in the low to medium income brackets andhave not registered through market exchanges or who cannot afford suchpremiums even with government subsidies, have trouble obtaininghealthcare services, or have insurance but it is insufficient.Additionally, there are patients who have insurance or can pay, butpaying medical expenses could result in financial hardship and/orbankruptcy. Some patients might be able to access alternative sources offunding for healthcare expenses, but this can be a complicated processto coordinate, as donors and providers and patients might only haveaccess to disparate computing systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method of coordinating healthcare accessibility and funding forhealthcare procedures, comprising: obtaining, request from patients andfrom a healthcare provider, information about a procedure needed by/fora patient unable to pay for the procedure; obtaining, from donors, fundsto cover such procedures; and providing funding from those donors to thehealthcare provider.

The following detailed description together with the accompanyingdrawings will provide a better understanding of the nature andadvantages of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a computer system that might connectvarious parties in a healthcare crowdfunding system.

FIG. 2 illustrates message flows between the various systems.

FIG. 3 illustrates a computer that might be used as a client or server.

FIG. 4 illustrates the computer in more detail.

FIG. 5 illustrates components of memory that might be present in thecomputer.

FIG. 6 illustrates the healthcare server in more detail.

FIG. 7 illustrates the funding server in more detail.

FIG. 8 illustrates message flows in an alternative embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates message flows between the various systems in analternative embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates various system components.

FIG. 11 illustrates various system components and process flows betweencomponents.

FIG. 12 illustrates various system components and process flows betweencomponents.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Using the methods and apparatus described herein, patients withouthealth coverage can obtain medical care identifying and collectingcurated patients' information, distributing the collected data to one ora few pre-selected healthcare provider(s) that are cross-referenced toscreen for the ability and willingness to provide treatment of patientcondition(s), and selecting and matching from diverse financial donors(such as private, public and governmental) for a funding process that isfacilitated by the computer system described herein. This methodpresents a great opportunity to serve the marginalized sector of thepopulation, to reduce the financial drain of hospitals (especially, butnot limited to, those that are community based and not-for-profit), andto lessen the burden on the government and its assistance programs. Italso will reduce medical costs and economic opportunity loss in the longrun.

A sudden illness, an accident, or long-term care needs, can cause aninsurmountable financial burden especially for those who alreadystruggle to make ends meet. On the other hand, healthcare providers,namely hospitals, are faced with rising expenses and uncompensated carecosts. Despite costly collection processes, bad debt, which is primarilycomprised of unpaid medical expenses caused by patients who cannotafford to pay their obligation, is not reimbursable. Hospitals wouldlike to reduce their costs for uncompensated care to their patients.There are mandates that require all non-profit hospitals to providecommunity-based services in order to maintain their tax-exempt (federaland local) status.

With an increasing number of patients foregoing necessary medical carebecause of the cost, solutions are needed. Using such a networkedmatching system embodying a plurality of computers to collect, retrieveand match patients, medical care providers (such as hospitals) andfinancial donors to efficiently, accurately, cost-effectively, andexpeditiously enroll in a crowdsourcing/crowdfunding service. Thepatient could either directly or through a healthcare provider requestfor a service. The information that is screened by the hospital withassurances of privacy and is sent with a request to a funding managementsystem computer, which then posts and presents the request to a varietyof donors, such as foundations, companies and individuals.

Examples are described below. Those donors can offer to cover specificrequests or a blanket set of requests, and the funding computer informsthe hospital computer accordingly so that the procedure can beperformed. Of course, emergency care that cannot be quickly funded mightnot go through this process.

An integrated technology system and crowdfunding platform can partnerwith healthcare organizations to facilitate the flow of capital inexchange for value-based and uninterrupted healthcare delivery topatients. This crowdfunding platform can be used by patients who are inpre-scheduled surgery associated with acute or chronic conditions, andthose in long-term care. The collected proceeds from campaigns can beused to compensate the healthcare providers that offer healthcaredelivery with full transparency to the stakeholders while maintainingthe privacy of the patient.

Depending upon the urgency of the care, some campaigns will be run on anEmergency Alert System (EAS) system. Smartphone apps and computerprograms might be used as the interface for such campaigns. This mightfacilitate intergenerational assistance, such as by those who would liketo help their elderly parents or loved ones, as well as the indigentpopulation itself. Some programs as part of the platform might be in theform of automated interaction agents (e.g., “chatbots”) that provideassistance with getting information and providing tutorials and otherresources to provide guidance and support to patients and designatedcaretakers.

Using a distributed computing system, involving patient computers usedby patients, a front-end interface, such as a web server, forinteractions with patients, and a back-end server that coordinatestraffic and interactions between the patients (via the front-endinterface), provider computer systems used to manage provider practices(patent electronic records, billing, etc.) and donor computer systemsused to manage and specify donor terms of donations. Most aspects areautomated, so that once a patient inputs relevant data, the back-endserver can coordinate with other computer systems to arrange for fundinga procedure and scheduling that procedure.

The back-end server also manages filtering, such as filtering forpatients to filter for those who would benefit from a specifiedprocedure and would not be able to obtain that procedure withoutalternative funding, for providers to those who are able and willing toprovide the treatment of patient condition, and for donors who agree tofund those patients for those treatments. The back-end server might alsomanage harmonizing, standardizing, and curating. In this manner, thedistributed computing system can identify and collect curated patients'information, distribute the collected data to one or more pre-selectedhealthcare providers, and select and match a financial donor. Donorsmight be from diverse backgrounds (private, public and governmental).This process involves multidimensional analysis and classification ofdata that is trackable with full transparency. It embodies networkedmatching systems that includes a plurality of computers to collect,retrieve and match patients, medical care providers (hospitals) andfinancial donors to efficiently, accurately, cost-effectively, andexpeditiously provide value-based care to underserved patients who havelimited financial means.

The platform might also include a telemedicine module. The healthcareproviders can use this telemedicine module to provide information andadvice to patients, as well as acting as an initial onramp into theplatform to inform hospitals and donors about patients' healthcareneeds. Medical satellite offices or safety net clinics either in ruralor urban areas that are equipped with such technology can send an alertmessage to a funding management system if the patient's profile matchespredetermined requirements. Thus, when the patient is diagnosed andready for treatment, there will be enough time to secure funding for themedical procedure so the patient receives the timeliest care.

Campaigns and donations could be managed and tracked in a database.

An optional time-banking feature might be implemented in somevariations, wherein a virtual or alternative currency is maintained bythe system based on the reciprocity of labor hours, which can strengthencommunity involvement (without tax implications), and encourageself-reliance and dignity, as there is reciprocity of services withoutbeing perceived as charitable handouts. Time banking, also knowntime-based currency or time dollars, can be a tax-exempt alternative andcomplementary currency whose unit is based on time. For example, onehour of time contributed might be equivalent to one time dollar or timecredit, regardless of service. This alternative currency can beintegrated into the platform for patients with mental health conditionand long-term care. Studies have shown that using time bankingalleviates monetary burden in a traditional sense, but also increasescommunity participation and reciprocity of help as well as increasesself-esteem. It dignifies the process by moving away from handouts andcharity model towards the power of earning and self-reliance.

The integrated technology and crowdsourcing crowdfunding platform can beconfigured to process different categories of patients differently. Forexample the platform might use different processes for acute patients,chronic patients and long-term care patients. Healthcare provisionsmight include pre-surgery candidates (for example, for cardiovascularsurgery), addressing patients who need ongoing monitoring and treatments(for example, chemotherapy patients), and long-term medical care (forexample, Alzheimer's patients).

The platform can comprise a plurality of distributed computer systemsinvolving one or more patient systems, a front-end web server tointerface to the one or more patient systems, a back-end server systemcoupled to the front-end web server to receive patient information, ahealthcare provider system and a donor computer system. The healthcareprovider system might provide information about a procedure needed by apatient unable to pay for the procedure, providing the information tothe back-end server system. The donor computer system might accept andreceive messages from the back-end server system about funding patientprocedures. The one or more patient systems might be configured to beoperated by patients seeking provider services. The distributed computersystem might also include a matching module that processes a pluralityof patient requests and a plurality of donor records to derive a matchedset of donor requests wherein the matched set of donor requestsoptimizes a number of procedures that can be funded.

Using this platform for managing funding of healthcare procedures mightinvolve receiving a request for medical care directly from a patient,obtaining, from a healthcare provider computer system operated for ahealthcare provider, information about a procedure needed by a patientunable to pay for the procedure, obtaining, from donor computer systemsremote from the healthcare provider computer system, messagescorresponding to funds to cover such procedures, wherein the donorcomputer system maintains donor records indicating types of procedures adonor supports and will fund, filtering and/or curating the request formedical care based on facility records indicating that the procedure isfundable, and providing funding from those donors to the healthcareprovider.

In some embodiments, the process also includes receiving, at ahealthcare facility computer system, a request for medical care, whereinthe request for medical care is a first request initiated by a patientand recorded in the healthcare facility computer system, obtaining, inthe healthcare facility computer system, a procedure record thatincludes data about a procedure that corresponds to the first requestfor medical care, determining, using the healthcare facility computersystem, that the patient requires the procedure and that the patient isunable to pay costs of the procedure, accessing a donor database toidentify, in the donor database, donor records corresponding to donorsthat have identified donation criteria and that are donor records withidentified donation criteria that match the procedure referenced in theprocedure record, and filtering and/or curating a plurality of requestsincluding the first request to a filtered set of filtered requestswherein each filtered request relates a related procedure record and arelated donor record. For each of the filtered and/or standardizedand/or curated requests, a donor request message might be sent withpatient details and procedure details to a donor computer system of aselected donor, wherein the donor request message indicates aconsistency between a filtered and/or standardized and/or curatedrequest and donor donation criteria, followed by receiving approval fromthe donor computer system for the selected donor to fund the procedure,and effecting funds transfer from the selected donor to a healthcarefacility operator for the procedure.

The donor request message with the patient details might includesufficient information for the selected donor to determine that fundingis appropriate and omits patient personally identifying information. Thedonor records corresponding to the donors that have identified donationcriteria might indicate domains of interest for each donor.

The process might also include matching a plurality of patient requestsand a plurality of donors, using a healthcare facility computer system,that processes a plurality of patient requests and a plurality of donorrecords to derive a matched set of donor requests wherein the matchedset of donor requests optimizes a number of procedures that can befunded.

Example System

This section describes an example of using the system described hereinfor prescheduled surgery and a long-term method.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a computer system that might connectvarious parties in a healthcare crowdsourcing crowdfunding system.

Consider a patient, P, with a history of cardiovascular diseases who isa candidate for a pacemaker implant but is unable to pay for theprocedure. Suppose P visits a hospital to schedule a surgery. Anadministrator at the hospital will take the patient's medical andfinancial information. The patient will be scheduled to have aconsultation with a cardiologist and a surgeon (often not the same) foran evaluation and surgery, respectively. The medical information willtravel through the healthcare provider's computer system as is done withother patients who are able to pay either out of pocket or throughinsurance. The administrator would note in the patient record acategorization, perhaps by selecting a specific code, that the patientis to move within the crowdsourcing method system described herein. Thecategorization would relieve patient P from full or partial financialresponsibility associated with the medical service, depending on theirfinancial capacity. The specific code might be shielded and remainconfidential from the medical service provider to ensure that thequality of care is unaffected. The estimated associated expenses reportfor doctors' services, surgery cost and cost of hospital stay forrecovery will be sent to the crowdfunding platform, such as the fundingmanagement system 206. The funding management system 206 might signal tothe other participating computers what to use as the specific code.

FIG. 2 illustrates message flows between the various systems.

An administrator of the crowdfunding platform can review the patient'sinformation that the hospital computer provided. Not all patient orhealthcare provider information needs to be provided; the privacy levelof the patient would be determined at the hospital by the patient. Thehospital determines what information will be necessary to be revealedfor the collection of the funds, while maintaining and protecting thepatient's privacy. The patient might be asked (patient computer system201) whether to be presented anonymously or publicly for financialassistance. Additional information will be helpful when using socialmedia to promote certain campaigns, but is not necessary to receivefunding. The crowdfunding platform computer then requests an explicitwritten consent from the patient, once at the beginning when patient'sintake is taken, and later when the patient is ready to receive themedical treatment, thereby ensuring patients' rights are protected.

Once the information is received by the funding management system (206)and reviewed, a copy will be stored in the database and a copy will beforwarded to the donor computer system (208). Donor Computer Systems(208) includes private foundations, corporate foundations, corporategiving programs, and the general public outreach via social media. Twoexample scenarios to obtain the funds for the healthcare services arefunding from an all donors' category (private foundations, corporatefoundations, and corporate giving programs) and funding addressing thegeneral public. One method is that a fund pool is created in advancefrom the institutional donor category and be assigned with any specificsand criteria requested from the donor. Though these funds will beearmarked and promised by the donor(s), they will not be available tothe funding management system (206) for distribution until a bill fromthe hospital is generated with all the details. This way, the donor willfeel reassured that their funding will be properly allocated and remainin a secure account until funds are needed. The second method isaddressing institutional donors and the general public, in which case nopool of funds is created, and donors would opt to review and providefunds as need arises on a case-by-case basis.

In one scenario, if a certain amount of funds has been negotiated anddedicated in advance for such cases, the donor will send a consentnotification to the funding management system (206), noting that thefunds will become available upon completion of the service. Once thepatient goes through the operation and the recovery, the hospital issuesthe bill and notifies the funding management system (206) with all thebreakdowns of the bill(s). The funding management system (206) forwardsthe entire bill to the funding entity donor computer systems (208). Thefull amount of bill(s) will be forwarded to funding management system(206). The funding management system (206) will reimburse the healthcareprovider for either a partial amount or the full amount, minus x%pre-negotiated (with the hospital/service providers) fee for service.This fee covers the general, administrative and operational expenses forthe platform manager. The fund for medical services gets transferredfrom the database to the hospital billing services (202).

In a second scenario, if a certain amount of funding has not beennegotiated and dedicated in advance from the funding partners (as somefoundations might prefer not to set aside the fund), the patient'scampaign will be sent widespread to all donors including the generalpublic via social media. Once the necessary amount of funds has beencollected to cover the medical expenses, the process duplicates itselfas in case of the first scenario.

Patients can include adults (including seniors) and children up to 18years old who require long-term and ongoing medical care to improve thequality of life and extend the length of life by such care. Someexamples of such conditions that will require long-term care are:Alzheimer's disease, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases,cancer, diabetes, auto immune disorders, kidney failure, mentalillnesses including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), geriatric andelder care, etc. In such scenarios, steps for funding may remain thesame as for the pre-scheduled surgery patients except that the costs arerecurring. For these situations, the request for funds may cover someperiod of time, such as six consecutive months of treatment. In aspecific implementation, one month prior to the due date (fifth month),the funding management system will request an evaluation from thehealthcare provider. The result will be forwarded to the donors and theprocess will duplicate itself for the collection of funds for anothersix months.

Using this system, the funding coordinator partners with healthcareproviders themselves as the first point of contact to be able tounderstand the institutions' obligations and patients' needs before andafter the treatment. Then, the funding coordinator might approachcorporations, foundations, philanthropic communities and the generalpublic to maximize outreach with a strong positive impact to fulfill amission of serving the underserved, and to encourage value-basedhealthcare deliveries that are presented/carried out with fulltransparency.

Funding might also be arranged from private or government contributorsfor veteran healthcare services, such as those dealing with trauma,mental or physical ailments such as spinal cord impairment, traumaticbrain injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia,depression, military sexual assault trauma, substance abuse, andconcussion.

FIG. 3 illustrates a computer that might be used as a client or server.

FIG. 4 illustrates the computer in more detail.

FIG. 5 illustrates components of memory that might be present in thecomputer.

FIG. 6 illustrates the healthcare server in more detail.

FIG. 7 illustrates the funding server in more detail.

FIG. 8 illustrates message flows in an alternative embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates message flows between the various systems in analternative embodiment.

Example Distributed Server System

Another example implementation uses the distributed server systemillustrated in FIG. 10. As shown there, five major components might becontemplated: a patient client computer (system or device) 1001, apatient webserver 1010 and web interface 1002, a back-end server 1003,one or more provider servers 1004, and one or more donor servers 1005.While details might be described below with reference to a singleprovider server or a single donor server, a typical system would havemultiple patient client computers, multiple provider servers, andmultiple donor servers.

The patient webserver 1010 includes program code for creating browserpages to get information from a patient such that a patient might enterinformation using the patient client computer 1001. The patient clientcomputer 1001 might be a patient's smartphone, laptop, or a kioskprovided by a health care facility. The patient interface 1002 providesthe user interface for obtaining patient information as describedherein. In one particular process, the patient uses patient clientcomputer 1001 to input patient information and that patient informationis recorded by patient webserver 1010 and/or transmitted to back-endserver 1003, which then records that patient information into a patientdatabase 1020. Using this, a patient can connect to a front-end systemto input required information for a medical treatment and paymentrequest. In FIG. 11, this is illustrated by process flow 1 (symbolizedwith an arrow labeled with a parenthesis around “1”).

In process flow 2, a front-end server 1102 transmits the patient'sinformation to a backend server 1104 and the backend server 1104 storesthat into a patient repository dataset (PA-Dataset1) 1106. Abusiness/application logic module of the backend server 1104 harmonizesand standardizes patient data and generates a unique identifier code(UIC) for the patient. In process flow 3, the business/application logicmodule stores the UIC with patient data into a curated patient database(CPA-DB).

The business/application logic module also normalizes and standardizesdata about provider(s) and donor(s), from a provider silo 1108 and adonor silo 1110, respectively. The business/application logic modulestores the normalized and standardized data into a curated providerdatabase (CP-DB) and a curated donor database (CD-DB), in process flows3 and 4.

In order to match a medical request with a provider, the logic modulemight prompt a corresponding request that might be a CRUD operation(create, read, update, delete) from curated provider database and thecurated patient's dataset. In process flow 5, the logic module storesmatched patient/provider data in a patient/provider database (PA+P),marked with unique patient/provider codes.

In process flow 6, the logic module generates a real-time message in theform of an Urgent Notification (UNo) message. The back-end servertransmits, in process flow 7, the UNo message to a listing ofpre-selected medical provider(s), alerting them of a need/match, andrequesting a real-time response of accepting or declining the patient.One or more provider systems might reply, in process flow 8, to anotification node of back-end server 1104.

Upon the receipt of approval for treatment from a provider system, thenotification node sends, in process flow 9, matched patient and providerdata to a curated donor database (CD-DB). A donor query module, inprocess flow 10, sends a message to a donor system, or relies on anexisting pool of funds established and available from authenticateddonor(s) for such treatment. In process flow 11, the donor system sendsa notification to a second notification node of the back-end server. Inprocess flow 12, upon receipt of approval for pledge of medical paymentfrom a donor, the back-end server stores matched patient, provider,donor data in a matched curated PA, P, D database with special coding toproceed for further actions.

In process flows 13, 14 and 15, when the back-end server notes an updatein the PA+P+D database, it generates and sends a real-time UrgentNotification Approval (UNA) message to the stakeholders (e.g., thepatient, the provider, the donor). The patient system and providersystems receive the message. The donor system receives a notificationthat the process is commencing (process flow 15).

FIG. 12 illustrates additional process flows.

During the process of the treatment, the back-end server systemdocuments each stage of the health episode and the associated costs. Theprovider sends the episode of care log to the back-end server and thedonor system in process flows 16 and 17. This process induces, costsaving, efficiency and transparency.

The provider system also sends a final report summing the total bill forthe treatment to the donor and to the back-end system. Upon completionof the donor's review, in process flow 18, the donor system signals tothe back-end server that the designated funds should be distributed.

In process flow 19, the back-end server files financial reports from abilling database and from episode of care files into a completed caseswarehouse.

Curation

One aspect of an implementation that drives efficiency of thedistributed computer system is being able to curate and filter patients,providers and donors, as a matching process of a (patient, provider,donor) triple might need to be done in hours instead of the weeks ormonths it might take for manually finding a donor for a particulartreatment. Patients are screened for financial inability to pay,providers are screened to avoid cases where they cannot provide thetreatment or they get paid and do not provide the treatment, and donorsare filtered based on donor criteria for what they will fund (and theirbona fides as donors).

In one approach, as a patient record is created, the patient record isassigned a treatment code representing the treatment they are seeking.The provider database has provider records, each with one or moretreatment code representing the treatments they can provide. The donordatabase has donor records, each with one or more treatment coderepresenting the treatments they agree to fund. Using that information,the back-end server can quickly curate and filter to find a match.

In a method of identifying and collecting curated patients' information,the back-end server might distribute collected data to one or severalpre-selected healthcare provider(s) that are cross-referenced to screenfor the ability and willingness to provide treatment of patientcondition(s), and selecting and matching from diverse financial donors(private, public and governmental) for reimbursement of medicalservices. This process might use multidimensional analysis andclassification of data that is trackable with full transparency. Itembodies networked matching systems that includes plurality of computersto collect, retrieve and match patients, medical care providers(hospitals) and financial donors to efficiently, accurately,cost-effectively, and expeditiously provide value-based care tounderserved patients who have limited financial means.

In one process, a patient fills out a questionnaire, which includes someinformation including, but not limited to: medical history, gender, age,basic financial information for ability/inability to pay, geographicallocation, treatability by telemedicine, type of medical condition,severity of the condition, urgency for treatment, frequency fortreatment, etc. A set of such information and data might get analyzed,classified and matched against care providers who have certaincorresponding criteria with the patient. These criteria may include butare not limited to: geographical location, type of hospitals, focusareas/level of medical expertise, capacity for treatment,physicians/medical staff willingness & permission to treat in anotherhospital, access to telemedicine, etc.

With the multidimensional matching system, an Online AnalyticalProcessing (OLAP) system might analyze, retrieve and subsequentlyrespond effectively and efficiently to multidimensional queries. Inaddition, the matching method can go through a classification processvia classifier algorithms. These classifiers hold features or valuesthat have been assigned specific variables.

Once the selection process for patient and care provider is completed(as soon as and almost in parallel with), another multidimensional querywill take place for the selection process of the donor(s). The alreadycurated data that contains information about patient, medical careprovider and the financial need for rendering such medical service willgo through a more detailed classification process to find the rightmatching donor(s) from the pool of private, public, corporate,foundations and government agency donors. This matching process narrowsdown the financial donors in return for the treatment of the patientcare.

In this manner, curated datasets can be used to match a patient to aprovider and a donor. The financial analysis portion might consider thepatient's ability to pay, resources available (such as liquid funds).

Variations

In particular embodiments, the provider servers and donor servers canoperate and respond to messages from the back-end server without needinghuman interaction. In some embodiments, messages from the back-endserver to a provider server are evaluated by someone working for theprovider associated with the provider server. In some embodiments,messages from the back-end server to a donor server are evaluated bysomeone working for the donor associated with the donor server. Theback-end server can perform matching patient-provider-donorautomatically and can automatically send messages to the patient, to theprovider, and to the donor, as needed.

This offers more efficiency and introduces steps beyond amatching/selecting process. Participation from participants (patient,provider, donor) can be automated after the initial step from thepatient and the responses from selected/matched providers and donors.The back-end server can store, analyze, select, match, and notify thestakeholders (e.g., patient, provider, donor) as needed. This offersmore efficiency and introduces steps beyond regular commonly practicedmatching/selecting processes.

Data from disparate sources for patients, providers, and donors can beharmonized and standardized, to provide accuracy, compatibility whileavoiding redundancy and ease of integration. For example, a patient'sinformation can be coded with unique identifiers, and provider'sclinical data and donor's financial data can also be coded and markedwith unique identifiers for faster and smarter matching. Various typesof encryption and firewalls can be applied/installed to protect privacyand support the integrity of data.

The back-end server might include data repositories for OLTP (OnlineTransaction Processing) for an operational system (database) and OLAP(Online Analytical Processing) for data warehousing. OLTP might be usedto offer fast query processing while keeping data integrity in amulti-access platform. It also preserves compatibility with EHR(electronic Health Record) and EMR (electronic Medical Record) softwarethat might be used by healthcare providers. OLAP offersmulti-dimensional views and complex query manipulation as well asaggregation of data sourced from the OLTP databases.

Conclusion

The above-described systems can provide funding for healthcare expensesfor the uninsured/underinsured population in need of healthcare. Suchfunding processes can reduce the cost of uncompensated care provided byhealthcare providers, such as hospitals. Uncompensated care mightcomprise charity care, where a healthcare provider understands at theoutset that there will not be compensation for providing the healthcare,as well as uncollectable billings, where a healthcare providerdetermines after providing the healthcare that the bill is partially ornot fully collectable. Uncompensated care cost might constitute 5-6% ofa hospital's expenditures.

The full burden of uncompensated care does not fall solely on doctors,clinics and hospitals. There are various funding programs that canalleviate this drain. In the U.S., a majority of the funding foruncompensated care has been provided by the U.S. federal or stategovernments, with Medicare and Medicaid covering about 60% of theuncompensated care cost, local and state resources that constitutesapproximately 38%, and less than 1% through private funds.

Utilizing various aspects of the above-described system(s), not only canthey provide or promote healthcare funding to the underserved anddemocratize healthcare, but they also can promote reductions in the costof uncompensated care and provide a substantial cost saving to thegovernment, state, hospitals and taxpayers.

Further embodiments can be envisioned to one of ordinary skill in theart after reading this disclosure. In other embodiments, combinations orsub-combinations of the above disclosed invention can be advantageouslymade. The example arrangements of components are shown for purposes ofillustration and it should be understood that combinations, additions,re-arrangements, and the like are contemplated in alternativeembodiments of the present invention. For example, the operations of thehospital and hospital computers might be done instead by health clinics.Thus, while the invention has been described with respect to exemplaryembodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize that numerousmodifications are possible.

For example, the processes described herein may be implemented usinghardware components, software components, and/or any combinationthereof. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regardedin an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the claims and that the invention is intended to cover allmodifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A distributed computer system for providingfunding to healthcare patients, comprising: a front-end serverconfigured to receive patient information; a back-end server coupled tothe front-end server, the back-end server is configured to receive thepatient information from the front-end server; a healthcare providersystem that is in communication with the back-end server, the healthcareprovider system is configured to provide healthcare provider informationto the back-end server system; and a donor computer system that is incommunication with the back-end server, the donor computer system isconfigured to provide a donor donation criteria to the back-end server,wherein the back-end server is configured to code at least one of thepatient information, the healthcare provider information, and the donordonation criteria with a unique identifier, thereby enabling filteringthereof
 2. The distributed computer system of claim 1, furthercomprising a matching module that processes the at least one of thepatient information, the healthcare provider information, and the donordonation criteria with the unique identifier to derive a matched set. 3.The distributed computer system of claim 2, wherein the matching moduleis configured to process a plurality of patient information and aplurality of donor criteria to optimize a number of procedures that canbe funded.
 4. The distributed computer system of claim 1, furthercomprising a telemedicine module that provides a means of communicationbetween the healthcare provider system, the donor computer system, andthe patient.
 5. The distributed computer system of claim 1, furthercomprising a notification node that is configured to send a message fromthe back-end server to the healthcare provider system, the donorcomputer system, and the patient.
 6. The distributed computer system ofclaim 1, wherein the back-end server includes a Patient Dataset thatstores the patient information, a Provider Dataset that stores thehealthcare provider information, and a Donor Dataset that stores thedonor donation criteria.
 6. The distributed computer system of claim 6,further comprising at least one of a Patient Curated Database, a CuratedProvider Database, and a Curated Donor Database, wherein the back-endserver is configured to filter the at least one of the patientinformation with the unique identifier into the Patient CuratedDatabase, the healthcare provider information with the unique identifierinto the Curated Provider Database, and the donor donation criteria withthe unique identifier into the Curated Donor Database.
 8. Thedistributed computer system of claim 1, wherein the at least one of thepatient information, the healthcare provider information, and the donordonation criteria with a unique identifier is encrypted for privacyprotection.
 9. A method of managing funding of a healthcare procedure ofa patient using a computer, comprising: providing the computer with afront-end server, a back-end server coupled to the front-end server, ahealthcare provider system that is in communication with the back-endserver, and a donor computer system that is in communication with theback-end server; receiving, through the front-end server, a request forthe healthcare procedure, the request including patient information;obtaining healthcare provider information from the healthcare providersystem; obtaining donor donation criteria from the donor computersystem; coding at least one of the patient information, the healthcareprovider information, and the donor donation criteria with a uniqueidentifier; filtering the at least one of the patient information, thehealthcare provider information, and the donor donation criteria with aunique identifier into a matched set; and providing funding which meetsthe donor donation criteria to the healthcare provider system.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, further comprising a step of determining, using thehealthcare provider system, that the patient requires the procedure andthat the patient is unable to pay costs of the procedure.
 11. The methodof claim 9, further comprising a step of notifying the healthcareprovider system, by the back-end server, of the matched set to identifyavailable healthcare providers.
 12. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising a step of notifying at least one of the patient, thehealthcare provider system, and the donor computer system, by theback-end server, of the matched set.
 13. The method of claim 9, whereinthe back-end server includes at least one of a Patient Curated Database,a Curated Provider Database, and a Curated Donor Database.
 14. Themethod of claim 13, further comprising a step of filtering the at leastone of the patient information with the unique identifier into thePatient Curated Database, the healthcare provider information with theunique identifier into the Curated Provider Database, and the donordonation criteria with the unique identifier into the Curated DonorDatabase.
 15. The method of claim 9, wherein the back-end serverincludes a matching module that is configured to process a plurality ofpatient information and a plurality of donor criteria to optimize anumber of procedures that can be funded.
 16. The method of claim 9,further comprising a step of sending a request from the back-end serverto the donor computer system for approval from a selected donor to fundthe healthcare procedure.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein therequest includes patient details for the selected donor to determinethat funding is appropriate and omits patient personally identifyinginformation.
 18. The method of claim 16, further comprising a step ofreceiving a message from the donor computer system approving the fundingof the healthcare procedure.
 19. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising a step of effecting funds transfer from the donor computersystem to the healthcare system for the healthcare procedure.
 20. Themethod of claim 9, further comprising a step of performing thehealthcare procedure on the patient.